Intended to expand comfort zones by asking questions to random strangers at college campuses, streets and even the beach, AchieveYou breaks barriers and societal norms by illuminating how alike anyone can be to a stranger by eliciting wholesome responses.
After seeing a video from their TikTok of them asking students questions/Truth or Dare at FSU, I knew I wanted to learn more about them. Luckily, I got the pleasure to chat with one of their founding members, Cody.
Her Campus (HC): How was AchieveYou created?
Cody Rode (CR): The creation of AchieveYou actually goes back to 2019 in our junior year of high school. We have a friend named Edmond who we used to pick up and take to school with us. One of these mornings he got in the car and went on to explain a website we could create called AchieveYou where people could talk to other people online about what they’re going through and their personal growth. Of course, over time things evolved into what they are now. Our core mission stayed pretty much the same, but we modernized our approach to how we executed it. Instead of having a website where people can chat with each other, we approached people in person and got them to share their experiences from life.
HC: How many people are in the group and how did you guys meet?
CR: There are five of us in the group. We have Austin, Brandon, Cody, Kyvon and Ledarius. Austin, Brandon and Cody are identical triplets. I had Kyvon in one of my eighth-grade classes in middle school. Then in high school a friend of mine, Noah came over and randomly brought Kyvon over who I hadn’t seen in a while but we caught up fast. The three of us and Ledarius worked at Publix for a few years so we met there.
HC: What inspired you to make wholesome videos?
CR: We’ve never really been able to answer this. The five of us are inspired in different ways. For me, it was the fact that I had never truly committed to an idea, and AchieveYou was the idea I decided to commit my life to make it. And for making wholesome videos, it’s the type of content we like to make. Currently, my inspiration comes from getting out of my comfort zone and building meaningful interactions with complete strangers.
HC: What are the main questions you guys ask and why?
CR: I don’t think you can categorize our questions. They’re usually deep questions that would be uncomfortable to answer with a stranger.
HC: What’s the most memorable answer you’ve gotten from a question?
CR: So this isn’t necessarily a question. Around December 2021 we were filming a video where we’d get a stranger to write a message, and then we’d give that to another stranger. We approached this guy named Liam. We asked him to write a message that meant a lot to him. The message said “If you just lost a loved one as I have, the hole is there for good, however, their memory and spirit remain. Embrace it, hold it, keep it with you.” We asked him if he was okay with telling us the backstory of it, and he said he lost his girlfriend to suicide a month ago. He choked up and started crying, so we hugged him and talked to him a little more before heading out.
For the people wondering how he is now, we saw him a couple of months after this and he said he was doing a little better. I ended up getting his number for him to text us if he needed it. And a couple of months ago I’d say, he reached out and said he was doing a lot better since then. It was fantastic to hear.
HC: When did you notice the account gaining popularity?
CR: AchieveYou started gaining popularity I think when we did those note videos. We hit a million followers on TikTok in January I believe and hit 2 million shortly after, I’m not sure exactly when.
The crazy thing is even though for the past couple of months our followers haven’t gone up drastically, we get recognized now almost everywhere we go. It feels like anytime we go somewhere there’s someone that tells us they love our videos. It’s an amazing feeling.
HC: What was your favorite college to visit?
CR: We’ve been to quite a few colleges, FSU, UCLA, Troy, UF, USA, UWF, USC, Georgia Tech and probably a couple more not mentioned. Out of all those we’ve been to so far, It’s a tough one between FSU and UCLA. We took a week trip to LA a couple of weeks ago, and one of these days we filmed at UCLA. The campus is beautiful. I loved the vibe of it. In my opinion, UCLA beats FSU in that aspect, but at FSU we get so much love. We always meet some cool people who watch our videos every time we’re there. So the vibe of the people at FSU beats UCLA. What surprised me was even though we were across the country we had so many people recognize us at UCLA. So with that, it’s a tough choice between those two.
HC: If you wouldn’t be doing this, what other career path would you have taken?
CR: I have no idea but I’d probably be a jeweler of some sort. I’ve always been into how jewelry is made, how diamonds are set, how watches work, etc. And recently I’ve been interested in the watch space. Investing in watches is something I’ll for sure be doing in the near future. Or a music video producer. I’ve always liked editing videos and I still create music videos on the side as a little passion project.
HC: In two to five years, what is your vision for expanding Achieve You in the future? Or, how would you envision your ideal look of Achieve You in two to five years?
CR: We’re currently expanding by creating a new card game called ‘How Deep Will You Go?’ where we took time to carefully craft 3 levels of question cards designed to dig deeper. We’re also in the process of elevating our merch into a premium clothing brand. To put it in simple terms, the bigger picture is for someone to be able to hear ‘AchieveYou’ and recognize it.
HC: What do you want others to take away from seeing your videos?
CR: However they take watching our videos is how I want them to take it. It’s hard for me to tap into the minds of our viewers because we’re constantly in the field creating the videos. I want people to know that life shouldn’t be taken so seriously and everyone can relate to each other in some way. We all go through stuff and how you take it is how you live it. You choose the quality of life you live.
From a group of five high schoolers having fun in 2019 to 2.2 million followers on TikTok three years later, the idea of AchieveYou has come a long way from the commencement of the project in the back of a carpool minivan.
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